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Waitressgate: Reflections of Someone Mixed Race, Part 2

Yesterday I did a post on waitressgate in South Africa, giving my thoughts on the incident. In part two, I’m going to talk about the fundraising campaign on Ms. Schultz’s behalf.(seekeroftruthweb.WordPress.com/2016/05/06/waitressgate-reflections-of-someone-mixed-race-part-1/ for part 1).
The fundraising campaign began when Sihle Ngobese, spokesman for Western Cape social development MEC Albert Fritz, entered the café and gave Schultz R50. Using social media, Ngobese started a couple of fundraising campaigns that raised over R44,000 for Schultz.
This ignited a discussion on whether or not this is appropriate, considering the injustices black people face. My answer is “yes”, as Gwen Ngwenya wrote, ” All the worlds[sic] wrongs don’t have to be corrected before people can give money to something more ‘trivial’. “; in other words, just because something is less of an injustice doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be addressed. To say otherwise is called the Fallacy of Lesser Degree. Another fallacy implied is the False Dilemma, which oversimplifies to only two possible choices when there are in fact more. In other words, when someone presents an either/or, 1) see if a both/and is possible; 2) try to think of other options. I think it’s possible to take care of everyone, if people work together.
I applaud Ngobese in this, in that he sought to be a peacemaker, as Jesus said, ” Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”(Mt. 5:9); and as in the Parable of The Good Samaritan, in which a Samaritan helped a Jewish man(in a time in which the relationship between Jews and Samaritans was tense). Jesus Himself interacted with a wide variety of people. However, when interacting with a woman from an area whose inhabitants exploited Galilleean peasants, He called her out(Mt. 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30).
Though I’m not Muslim I find inspiration in the Quran: “Don’t let the hatred of a people lead you to be unjust! Be just, for it is nearer righteousness” (surah 5:8) and “We have made you from a man and a woman into nations and tribes that you may know each other” (49:13). The latter ayah(verse) is one of my favorite lines of any holy book and something I want to promote(and one purpose for this blog).
Other lines I believe are relevant are this quote from Malcolm X: “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against.” Also the Ahmadi Muslim slogan of “Love for all, hate for none.”
To sum up, I urge us all to do what we can to promote justice and peace; as it is written, “Justice, justice shall you pursue” (Deut. 16:20); the rabbis say the repetition means that we remain just ourselves in our pursuit of justice. Also, “Seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 34:14); this blog is an attempt to put this into practice.